Vaguely aware that he had touched on something intensely personal, and not in a positive way, Watson tightened his arm around Holmes a little. He was already missing the stroking fingers on his jaw.

"'Satisfied' and 'thrilled' seem very apt to me," he said, "if I may borrow those words. 'Conflicted,' too. What if we are discovered? Are we really to carry on an illegal affair under the very noses of Scotland Yard? What of Mrs. Hudson?"

These considerations were very real, but even as he said them Watson realised they were an admission that he considered it to be a real option, that he was open to the idea of doing this sort of thing again. To be honest, it was hard to imagine returning to the way things had been between them, after crossing the line they had tonight.